Toyota targeting win at Fuji, say Buemi and Davidson

Nearly two years have passed since Toyota claimed its last WEC win, with the TS050 Hybrid failing to match the raw pace of its Audi and Porsche LMP1 rivals since its devastating near miss in the Le Mans 24 Hours.

However, Toyota enjoys a strong record at its home race, where it took victory in 2012, 2013 and 2014 before coming only fifth and sixth last year amid a winless campaign.

Buemi believes that, having been competitive at both Le Mans and Spa, Toyota can head to its home event with victory in its sights.

“I think it’s going to be the fifth time we go there [Fuji],” the Swiss told Motorsport.com. “We won three times in a row, but last year we were not good enough.

“So the objective is to win it again, and I think we have a much better chance this year than we had last year.”

Davidson believes the fact that Fuji doesn’t demand the same downforce levels as the last three tracks on the calendar should put it in a better situation relative to its German opposition.

The former F1 circuit features a main straight of 1.475km, which is the longest on the WEC calendar barring the famous Mulsanne at Le Mans.

“We’ve always been good around Fuji, we’ve won the most races out of any manufacturer there in the WEC,” Davidson told Motorsport.com.

“We go there always looking forward to that one. It’s a track where it’s more about compromise with the set-up, with the aero.

"It’s fair to say we had a better package for Le Mans, this year we focused more energy on that race than ever before and it showed.

"At Spa we were competitive, we should've won the race outright on merit, so at a track like that or a track like Fuji, where it’s more about efficiency and not just whacking the downforce on the car, then we seem to be OK.

“So we should be better at Fuji [than previous tracks], and at Bahrain as well.”